The pharma exporters in the country have asked the Union commerce ministry to resolve several long pending issues facing the exporters, including long delay in approval for the API units by the Centre Pollution Control Board for new projects, which have been hampering the growth of exports from the country.

Taking up the matter with Union commerce secretary S R Rao recently, the exporters urged the government to initiate measures to give impetus to the exporters, especially the small players who need government support to flourish.

Seeking the commerce ministry's intervention, the exporters said that the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) industry needs to be strengthened. It takes minimum 18 months to get approval from the Centre Pollution Control Board for new projects thereby spoiling the product plans which the entrepreneur is planning. As a result, China caters to 65 per cent of the worldwide API needs. Moreover our formulation industry is at risk if China holds India at ransom for supplies of API's. Besides faster approval, the exporters wanted the ministerial intervention for providing more liberal loans to the API Industry for expansion, upgradation, green chemistry, etc.

The exporters also demanded the commerce ministry to create a pharma fund for pharma Industry on similar lines of Textile Upgradation Fund (TUF) where interest subsidy of 5 per cent to be given on rupee loan or dollar loans to be charged at a maximum of 5 per cent. The same may be utilized for upgradation and expansion of pharma SME's as other ministries are only focusing on giving funds for SEZ or R&D purposes which is not of any use to SME's.

Another long pending demand of the exporters is related to raising the level of SSI limit on pharma sector. As it is a knowledge-driven industry and highly regulated, therefore keeping in mind the capital cost, SSI limit needs to be raised to at least Rs.10 crore, the exporters demanded.